Page 88 of Of Masks and Fury

“I could drug the guards,” Lexie said. “Slip something into their evening meal.”

Trew shook his head. “Too many variables. If even one guard doesn’t eat or notices something wrong, they’ll figure out whathappened and then we’ll never get inside that dungeon. I could overpower them with magic, though. Quick and quiet.”

“And risk exposing your abilities?” I shook my head. “If anyone suspects you’re more than a hired bodyguard, my father will imprison you and the next thing you know, you’ll be handed a mug of ashwine. If he suspects we’re close, he’ll use you to get to me. Torture you for information. Keep you alive as leverage. My father’s not above any of that.”

Trew’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t argue.

“Let’s come up with a simple plan, then,” Derren said, glancing toward the door, his fingers drumming on the arm of the chair. “We need a distraction big enough to pull guards away from the dungeon, but not so obvious it seems intentional.”

We fell silent, each of us thinking.

“An emergency in the village could call guards away,” I said.

Trew and I shared a long look. “Such as?”

“I wouldn’t want anyone hurt but a natural disaster of some kind?”

“That wouldn’t draw guards from the dungeon, though, would it?” Kerralyn said. “Though I like the idea. It’s making me think…”

Pherin hopped along the back of the sofa, her tiny head swiveling between us.

“Eva’s in an isolated cell, down the hall from the others,” I said. “Which means there are fewer guards in her area. But it also means we have to go deeper into the dungeon to reach her. There’s a greater chance we’ll be seen. I escaped through a grate in the closet rather than return the way I arrived. It would be risky to take the same route twice, though I don’t believe anyone saw me slip through the kitchen.”

“Someone’s kept her silent for a long time,” Lexie said. “That takes powerful motivation. Either fierce loyalty or fear.”

“Or both,” Kerralyn said, her brow furrowed.

I thought of the desperate hope mixed with resignation I’d seen in the woman’s eyes when she’d helped me escape. She’d taken a risk for me, but would she take an even bigger one by speaking about what happened sixteen years ago?

“We’re assuming she’ll help us,” I said. “But we don’t know that she will. She doesn’t know any of us. For all she knows, we’re working with my father.”

“Then we’ll have to convince her otherwise,” Trew said.

“The kitchen staff sleeps in servants’ quarters near the dungeon level,” Kerralyn said. “I’m quite familiar with that area now.”

We all looked at her.

She straightened, her violet eyes bright with the kind of determination I’d seen during the Rite. “I could create a diversion, something that would pull the guards away from their posts without raising suspicion about the dungeon specifically.”

“What do you have in mind?” Lexie asked.

Kerralyn’s smile turned wicked. “I’ll burn the castle down.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

ISI

“Actually,” Kerralyn said with a rueful laugh, “I probably shouldn’t try to burn the castle down. But a fire in the servants’ quarters, smoky enough to cause alarm without being dangerous.”

I ran through scenarios. “That could work. The smoke will trigger panic and pull guards from regular patrol routes.”

“Including the dungeon entrance nearby,” Trew said, nodding slowly.

“I can handle the second diversion,” Lexie said. “A false emergency in the upper castle levels. I’ll say I saw a suspicious person lurking near Isi’s chambers.”

She was right. It seemed my father’s fear was making him see danger in every shadow.

Derren cleared his throat. “I’ll make sure I’m scheduled for dungeon rotation tonight. No one wants to do it, so they won’t deny my request. I can position myself at the entrance and redirect any guards who don’t respond to the other diversions. I’ve already mapped exit routes through the lesser-used passages. If something goes wrong, I can get you out.”